Missouri Drug Addiction: The Drug Addiction Problem Among Medical Professionals

Medical professionals are supposed to help people. They are not supposed to be the people who need help. Both doctors are nurses are susceptible to drug addiction and they may even be more vulnerable than the general population.

Surveys say that as many as 15% of medical professionals will abuse drugs or alcohol sometime in their careers. For example, more than half of the 71 doctors disciplined by the Missouri medical board were charged with violations related to drugs or alcohol.

Medical professionals seem to be particularly susceptible to prescription drug abuse. This is likely because they have access to prescription products that the general population does not.

Also, medical professionals have knowledge of the drug’s effects and may feel as if they are not going become addicted because they fully understand the drug.

Pain killers and sleeping pills seem to be the most common type of drug abused by medical professionals. Sometimes the addictions begin with a legitimate prescription after an injury. The relaxing effect becomes addictive to someone in a high-stress atmosphere such as the medical profession. Then, physical dependency begins.

Nurses learn to beat the system by charting that a patient got two pills and then only giving them one. They pocket the extra pill. Or sometimes, they pocket the dose while the patient is sleeping. They have access to drug cabinets and other steal prescription pads and forge their own prescriptions. There are even doctors who are willing to write unnecessary prescriptions.

Nurses are subject to losing their jobs if they are caught abusing drugs. Many times, the medical professionals are put on probation by medical boards for violations involving illegal prescriptions or abusing drugs on the job.

The conditions of their probation may be drug rehabilitation, along with random drug testing and monitoring for a specified length of time – frequently a period of time not less than five years.

Doctors and nurses often get more seriously ill than their patients because they take higher quality drugs than people on the streets. Some anesthetics, like the painkiller fentanyl, are more potent than morphine or heroin.

Returning to work can be especially challenging. Many times medical professionals change their specialties after rehab to remove the source of temptation.

Some states allow the doctors to continuing working while they are in rehab. Some states allow doctors to retain their licenses as long as they refrain from using drugs or alcohol. This policy has come under fire in many locations because of the danger to the public.

Most state boards are insisting that medical professionals seek rehabilitation rather than using criminal prosecution as a deterrent. They feel this would create circumstances under which medical professionals hide their addictions instead of seeking treatment.

Once a healthcare professional enters a treatment program, their chances for a complete recovery is very high. The Farley Center and Williamsburg Place provides affordable, individualized care in a relaxing residential atmosphere. Respected nationally by the healthcare community, twenty five percent of patients are referred by noted physicians. Unlike most centers, The Farley Center and Williamsburg Places offers full time, on-site physicians whose patient roster is small, allowing for effective, one-on-one care and commitment to healing body and spirit. For more than 15 years they have assisted thousands of good people who simply wish to get well.

From Twitter:

Positive Steps Taken to Curb Drug Addiction in Missouri http://t.co/fvxtv5rd – by Dollyoe34 (Dolly Rubinoff)